Calleigh in the Presence
by CSIdestiny
Summary: Calleigh's team just don't know know the stuff she's been through. How all the little small mistakes and accidents she's making now is a result of her kidnapping. Please R


Time frame: Post 'All In' and Present season 7

.....

Nobody knew. Nobody understood. Nobody realized Calleigh Duquesne was hurting inside. This was beyond her. Deeper than any heartbreak could put her. Ever since she'd been kidnapped that spring, she felt that she was losing herself.

Calleigh put the last of the evidence away and smoothed out her yellow top. She often hid behind her work in the day, busing herself with bullets, tackling beyond-belief type cases. With a heavy sigh, she reached for her back pocket and pulled out her cell phone. "Hello, its Calleigh," she said cheerfully. "Yes, the striations on the bullet was a match to the bullet found in George Donahue. Now all we have to do is trace the gun to the suspect. Alright, let me know what I can do." And with a click of her phone close, her fake happiness went away.

Calleigh ran a hand through her hair and stared at her reflection through the glass of her ballistics lab. This was her sacred place, but only a few months ago, she burned it down. She'd been grateful that she wasn't hurt, even more grateful that Horatio was cool with it. Only, Horatio didn't know the meaning behind the lab being burned down.

Ten years in the field would eventually lead her to this point, only she thought that she'd been stronger than that. She wanted to be able to handle any challenge that came her way, but this kidnapping, it pushed her way over the edge. Calleigh sat down on a stool and lay her head in her hands, thinking over the events of the kidnapping.

_Nothing really normal about that day. First, her crime scene photos went missing. Actually, they weren't missing, they were all blanks or taken as if the lens caps were still on. She'd swore that she never let the camera out of her site. Ryan got the truth out of her. Calleigh admitted that maybe she stepped away for a second, surely not enough time to sabotage her camera. _

_Next, there was the site. "Solve a Crime With Calleigh." She only thought it was a joke. Maybe someone in the lab posted it, as it was supposed to be funny, but then it would be pulled down. It didn't turn out to be funny when she saw her crime scene photos on the site. That evidence lead her to Dan Cooper's home. _

"_Cooper, you're not that guy," she said to him. "You made one mistake, don't make others."_

"_See you at the next crime scene," Cooper said, dismissing her. He wanted revenge and to him, 'little miss perfect' needed to be taken down a notch. _

"He's taken more than a notch from me," Calleigh mumbled silently. Her thoughts went back to her mind.

_Horatio was being extradited to Brazil, pending murder charges. All of this was happening in the middle of the Cathleen Newberry case. Sure, the other CSI's done cases and solved them expertly, but this one was unusual and they needed Horatio. Calleigh, up for the challenge, agreed to step up and step in. She'd left to follow a possible lead, watching as Horatio stepped into the tinted SUV._

_Something was unusual, even before Calleigh stepped out of her Hummer. An accident, under a pathway, with no apparent cause. Nothing. Just a body. Calleigh glanced around cautiously, making sure everything was okay before she eventually stepped out. _

_Making her way over to the body, she stuck out one hand to check for the young man's pulse when...a wet cloth was placed over her nose and mouth, paired with a strong arm around her body, in addition to the young man getting up and also holding her hands tightly. Her eyes raised in fear, the first time in absolutely years she felt fear. She screamed, moaned, kicked, did what she had to do to save herself, but she was fighting a losing war. Pretty soon, the chloroform began to subdue her. _

_Calleigh awaken in the dark warehouse building, unaware that she'd been kidnapped. She opened her eyes and almost as a snap of the fingers, she realized she was abducted. Her eyes opened in fear, wondering how she would get out of this. But that didn't last too long as she drifted back into unconsciousness. _

_It had to been at least thirty minutes by the time Calleigh awaken again. Somehow she managed to pull herself up and sit up on the wall. She had a pounding headache, her throat was dry, her arms hurt and she didn't know who her kidnappers were, but she would soon find out. _

_Seth and Tommy. Her eyes met the younger of the men before, but the man that actually subdued her, she hadn't. She looked at him, then looked away. Calleigh looked at him again, then looked away. She wanted to know how this man looked like, the man that kidnapped her, but back in the Police Academy, one rule you followed when you were kidnapped; Never look the kidnapper in the face. He or she would feel threaten and could possibly cause you to lose your life. Calleigh didn't want to take chances. She would do anything that she possibly could to save hers. _

"_Pick her up," Seth said. Tommy walked over to her; Yanked her up by the shoulders; Pulling the gag out Calleigh's mouth. She coughed as she inhaled through her mouth._

"_What do you want from me?" Calleigh worded fast, staring at the floor. _

"_We wanna solve a crime with Calleigh," Seth said, as if he was on some game show. _

_Calleigh looked at the man in the face. 'Cooper' she mumbled in her head. This kidnapping was his fault._

"_You see, our poker buddy he just..." Seth continued to talk. Calleigh's mind was running one hundred miles a minute. _

"_You expect me to cover a murder?" The younger man gripped her arm tightly. "Okay, Okay. First we need bleach..." she began running down the checklist of what they would need._

"_What else?" Seth asked. _

"_I need to get the bullet out the..body. They can trace the bullet back to your gun. But you're going to have to untie me for that."_

_Seth nodded and Tommy cut Calleigh's restraints loose. _

_Calleigh moved over to the body, examining it closely. "You're lucky. The bullet is only half way through." She stood up._

"_Stop, stop, where do you think you're going?"_

"_I have to get something to get the bullet out." Seth kept the gun on Calleigh the whole time. She got the bullet out, gave it to Tommy to discard. _

"_You think you can get the next one out?" Seth asked Tommy._

_Calleigh looked up at the man. Every muscle in her body wanted to shake and she swore her blood pressure dropped dangerously low as she felt her blood run cold from fear. _

"_Yeah," Tommy hesitantly answered. _

"_Then what do we need her for?" He cocked the gun._

"_I wouldn't do that, that bullet smells like garlic," Calleigh said quickly in one last plea for her life. She'd really wasn't going to try and cover up this murder, but now she realized that they wouldn't hesitate. _

"_And what the hell does that mean?"_

"_It means I'm going to need you to get me speaker wire...." Calleigh announced another checklist of things. _

"_You know, you should really stop stalling."_

"_I'm just trying to do what you ask," Calleigh said. _

"_I think..we should she what she can do," Tommy said. _

_Calleigh knew for sure she was a goner, at least until Tommy stepped in. _

"_Okay, you can be her delivery body. It'll give me a chance to get to know this bitch." He looked at Calleigh. "Go," he said looking at Tommy._

A tear slid from Calleigh's eye and she wiped it away quickly. She didn't want to be seen crying in the middle of the lab. When all of this happen, they wanted to put her through therapy. She insisted that she was fine and this kidnapping was nothing a little hot bath couldn't take care of.

Looking back on it now, everything wasn't fine. Calleigh was slowly losing her professionalism. It had only been weeks, after the kidnapping, when the ballistics lab had been burned down. She knew it was a stupid idea to lay a q-tip down and leave the bullet free, open to roll at any moment. But that didn't stop her. Weeks later, she had been pulled off a case because that website still worked it's damage on her career. There was a video clip of her reading off a 'cheat sheet' and it wasn't even hers. It was Eric's. She was ordered to take a refresher's course, having to passed the test with a perfect score. That was 10% higher than the normal examination requirement. Not to mention months later and she was having a breakdown at work. Eric seen her cry. He heard the way her voice goes high when her cries come from the soul. He saw her wail on the floor. He saw the tears gushing out of her emerald green eyes. It took much talking and a lot of hugging to finally get Calleigh to dry her eyes. She was slipping. Calleigh Duquesne was slipping.

She traced her fingers along her stomach. Just a few months ago, her ribs were bruised so bad, it took almost two weeks for them to heal. Not that anyone knew this, but she had to get fluid drained from one of her ribs. Three of her ribs in all had been impacted. No one knew of the small little scar she sported, as a result, under her breast bone.

"_Tommy's out running errands, I thought maybe you and me could get to know each other."_

"_I rather die than have you touch me," she'd said. _

_He wanted to test it and see if it was true. Surely, no one wanted to lose their life because they didn't want to be touched by a stranger. Seth raised his hand, attempting to run fingers through her hair when...she literally hard slapped him across the face. Calleigh made another attempt, but this time, he grabbed her hand. _

_Calleigh groaned. Now she put herself up against the beast and she knew that she would not make it out of this. He slapped her so hard in the face, the force made her fall to the floor. It was over now. Seth delivered one, powerful, angry kick to her torso and she was not expecting that. The breath was literally kicked out of her and the pain accompanied...this was not good. Calleigh expected to feel another kick, something, but Seth leaned down in her face, his hot breath practically spilling into her face. _

"_Last words...Lets hear them."_

"_I don't think you killed the poker player..." Calleigh's hand turned off to the side. She braced herself for what she would experience in a few short seconds; The feel of the bullet, hot and hard, fragmenting pieces of her skull, lodging inside her brain, the last pain she would feel before eventually darkness would over take her and she would closer her eyes for ever.. She was surprised when she didn't feel anything of that. What happened?_

More tears fell from Calleigh's eyes. It had been well over fifteen years since she'd ever been on the ground as a result of a fight but none was ever this powerful. No man has ever been able to have the upper hand on her...none since the days of her drunken dad. Calleigh looked out through the hall, making sure no one was looking at her. Also, making sure, no one would sneak in on her vulnerable, sensitive moment. After all, she did call Eric down to get the results of the bullet striations. No one was around, so she continued in her thoughts.

"_Oh you don't, huh? Now why is that?" He pulled the gun away and tucked it back in his pocket. _

_Calleigh swallowed, thankful that her last words practically saved her life. She sat up, just a little at a time, allowing time for her body to get adjusted to the pain coming from her abdomen. She moved closer to the poker player's body and sat crossed leg like a little child. She tucked her hair behind her ears. Before she could begin telling him why, Tommy came back. A little bit of her internally sighed relief since Seth seemed to only listen and understand to what Tommy said. But another part of her reminded her that both of them kidnapped her. They both were still very dangerous. _

"_I'll show you," Calleigh said. She looked at Seth. "Could you hand me one of the jars, please?" She hesitated. She never hesitates. Calleigh's always sure of herself. But she wanted to make sure that she didn't use a trigger word. Seth proved his point. He'd obvious would have no problem in killing her. Calleigh no longer cared for whether or not she was covering a murder. Right now, she was in a fight for her life. _

"Hey," Eric said, opening the door to the ballistics lab.

Calleigh jumped a little, looked at him, half smiled and glanced back at the table.

"Sorry to startle you Cal," Eric said, smiling. He didn't think that she would actually be having a moment right now, so it surprised him when she did jump.

"I have the bullet striations for you," Calleigh said, standing up and heading back to the lab desk. Eric followed her but Calleigh didn't expect him to. She backed up against him and jumped, gasping at the contact with his body. She also dropped the little baggy, ready to fight.

"Calleigh are you okay?" Eric was now genuinely concerned for his friend.

"I'm fine,"Calleigh said shaky, picking up the little baggy that she dropped. Luckily, the bullet was in the bag or else she would've just contaminated evidence.

"Calleigh talk to me," Eric said. Over the years, he would think Calleigh and his friendship would be opened enough for each other that they could say whatever they needed to say to each other. Especially lately with her. She allowed him to see her cry and then shamelessly cried on his shoulder.

"I don't know," Calleigh said, shaking her head. "It's been months...literally almost seven months to be exact since that whole incident. Two days, Eric, two days literally has taking its toll on me."

Eric knew exactly where she was headed and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Calleigh, you're safe now."

Calleigh nodded her head and smiled an unnoticeable smile. "Yes now I am, but do you know that I'm forever scarred. I used to love coming to work, but I dread it now. Going out in the field, I refuse to go unless I have a partner. Even when I have to go alone, it usually takes me five minutes to make up my mind to even get out. I'm usually surveying the area, making sure that its at least safe for me to step out. Even then, when I'm out the truck, I'm constantly looking over my shoulder to see if anyone's following me. And the worse," Calleigh said, running a hand through her hair. "I hate leaving out of here at night. I've doubled up on the amount of guns I have in my home, mapping out my home and developing an 'in-case-of-attack' plan. Eric you probably don't know this, but I carry two guns on me now. The standard on my hip and my personal one on my ankle. I even resorted to wearing brass knuckles and carrying a stun gun...just in case."

Eric raised his eyebrows. He loved Calleigh, but he would not like to surprise her at night, or ever. She was loaded as if she was on her way to combat, fighting in a war against everyone else.

Calleigh thought over in her head what she just said out loud. It all made perfect sense while it was in her head, but saying them out loud made her look like a paranoid freak. "Do you think that's too much?"

Eric raised his eyebrow and smiled. "Actually no, giving the situation you were put in, I would say no. But carrying around all of that ammo an other stuff, could possibly put you in greater danger. I have an idea though. How about you and me both take on some defense classes. That way we can learn a healthy way in defense."

Calleigh nodded and smiled. "Sounds good. Thank you, Eric. You always know the right things to say."

Eric smiled. "That's what I'm here for."

.....

End.


End file.
